One of the earliest books I ever read as a new believer, back in the late Seventies, was a first-hand account of the Azusa Street Revival by Frank Bartleman called, Another Wave Rolls In. It was later slightly edited and republished in 1982 under the name, Another Wave of Revival. As a special Introduction to the first, and an Epilogue to the second, an article by Arthur Wallis, “Revival and Recovery” was included. In it, he gave a sweep of church history highlighting the various moves of God through the centuries and showing how God was, little by little, restoring back to the Church that which had been lost during her long decline into the Dark Ages.

It was this book, and the historic overview by Bro. Wallis in particular, that God used to stir in my heart some deep questions about the Lord’s end-time purpose and how it would all culminate. One question I asked Him was, What will be the distinctive mark of the final move of God that will wrap up the entire Church age? I shared about how God spoke to my heart in response to that question in the About page on this blog. There I said,

“I can vividly remember the day when I poured out my heart to the Lord with deep questions about the focus of the Church and the culmination of His end-time purpose. The Father spoke to my heart as clearly as if He had spoken audibly. He silently thundered one simple phrase concerning His Son: “…that in all things HE might have the preeminence.” (Col. 1:18) That word resonated with such prophetic power in my spirit that it marked a watershed in my life. I vowed at that moment that the rest of my life, by the grace of God, would be marked with having the same heart that I saw in the Father concerning the centrality and supremacy of His Son in all things. I pleaded with God to so burn that passion into my heart that nothing could surpass it and nothing could supplant it, ever. I saw that this was the highest thing I could commit myself to and desired to be a man after God’s own heart in this regard for the rest of my days. Now, some thirty years later, I am ever so grateful that the Father has been faithful to keep that which I committed to Him on that day.”

I recently came across this epilogue again and read it through, recalling how it had stirred my heart so many years ago. Because of its significance in my life, and also its relevance to the present series of posts on “Tradition, Scripture and the Church”, I decided to contact Whitaker House to see if I could get permission to offer it here on the blog. This they have graciously granted, and so I have added the full piece to the Resources section for you to access and enjoy!

It has been a rather busy season of life this past month in our family, including re-roofing our house, so Part 5 of the “Tradition…” series has taken a little longer to write than I had expected. I will be posting it next week though. In the mean time if you would like to visit the previous parts of the series to get caught up, I encourage you to follow the links below to their pages. This series has been more substantial in length, and even in content than most, but I don’t know that there has been a more important matter that I’ve written on. Next week’s post should help to pull it all together and it includes some truths that I’ve been waiting to write on since I started blogging almost three years ago. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you!

(The poem that wraps up “Revival and Recovery” I’ve had posted on the blog for a couple of years now. It includes an additional verse than what was included in “Revival and Recovery”. You can see it here if you’d like: “The Tide is sure to Win” – by Priscilla Leonard )